Aretha Franklin, the iconic R&B singer and songwriter known for decades simply as “the Queen of Soul,” has died. Franklin was admitted into hospice care on August 13, amid reports that she was “seriously ill” with pancreatic cancer. She retired from touring in February 2017, and was forced to cancel a pair of…
Elmarie Wendel, a veteran character actress best known for her role as Mrs. Dubcek, landlady to 3rd Rock From The Sun’s Solomon family, has died. Wendel’s daughter confirmed the news in an Instagram post on Saturday evening, calling her mother “a great mom and a badass dame.” Wendel was 89.
Tab Hunter, 1950s movie idol, died Sunday night in Santa Barbara, California, from a blood clot that caused a heart attack, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Allan Glaser, Hunter’s romantic partner of more than three decades, told THR that his death was “unexpected and sudden.” He was just three days shy of his…
Robby Müller, the Dutch cinematographer who shot such modern classics as Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas (1984), Lars Von Trier’s Dancer In The Dark (1996), and a number of films by indie stalwart Jim Jarmusch, has died. As The Guardian reports, Müller died at home in Amsterdam after a long illness. He was 78.
The French documentarian and writer Claude Lanzmann, whose 1985 magnum opus Shoah stands as the medium’s definitive meditation on the Holocaust, has died. One of the greatest documentaries ever made, the nine-and-1/2-hour film took more than a decade to complete; it was the pièce de résistance of a long career. A…
Richard Swift, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who released music as a solo artist along with his work as a member of indie-rock powerhouses The Shins, The Black Keys, and The Arcs, has died. Swift was suffering from an undisclosed “life-threatening condition,” and had been in the hospital since last…
Koko, the western lowland gorilla who changed humanity’s understanding of animal communication with her mastery of American Sign Language, has died. In a statement, the research center where Koko lived for most of her life says, “The Gorilla Foundation is sad to announce the passing of our beloved Koko. Her impact has…
The endangered art of the hand-drawn movie poster lost one of its leading practitioners yesterday, as Bill Gold, creator of iconic movie posters for such films as Casablanca (1942), Dial M For Murder (1954), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Dirty Harry (1971), The Exorcist (1973), The Sting (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and…
Tom Wolfe, a chronicler of the ‘60s counterculture who helped change the face of nonfiction writing as a leader in the New Journalism movement before turning to writing novels with the bestselling The Bonfire Of The Vanities, has died. As astute observer of social trends in his prime, Wolfe is credited with…
Margot Kidder, the actress best known for her role as Lois Lane opposite Christopher Reeve in the Superman films produced in the 1970s and ‘80s, has died. Kidder died at home in Montana yesterday of unknown causes, according to TMZ, which broke the news. She was 69.
Two days after his family and bandmates reported him missing and expressed concern for his “fragile state,” Scottish police confirm that Scott Hutchison, frontman for the indie-rock group Frightened Rabbit, has died, various outlets are reporting. A body was reportedly found yesterday at 8:30 p.m. local time in Port…
Anne V. Coates, the legendary British film editor who won an Oscar for her work on Lawrence Of Arabia (1962), was nominated for her work on four more films, and received the BAFTA Academy Fellowship in 2007, has died, according to multiple news outlets. She was 92.
Ermanno Olmi, the post-neorealist Italian director best known for The Tree Of Wooden Clogs, Il Posto, and I Fidanzati, has died. Equally drawn to social and spiritual concerns, Olmi remained an outsider among European art filmmakers of the ‘60s generation because of his strong Catholic faith and his rural and…
Pamela Gidley, an actress probably best known for her role as the elusive Teresa Banks in David Lynch’s prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, has died, the Los Angeles Times reports. The cause of Gidley’s death was not listed in her obituary, which announced that she “died peacefully in her home, on Monday,…
Bruno Sammartino, one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling history, has died. No specific cause of death has been provided, but according to CBS’ Pittsburgh affiliate, Sammartino had been battling “health issues” for the last two months and passed away with his wife and two sons by his side. He was 82.
NPR reports that one of its own, longtime Morning Edition host and beloved Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! scorekeeper Carl Kasell, has died. Kasell, who had been on the radio since he was 16 years old and practiced his “radio voice” for years before that, died from complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 84.
Harry Anderson, the actor and magician best known for his eight-year run as Judge Harry Stone on the NBC sitcom Night Court, has died. No cause of death has been listed, but local media is reporting that Anderson was found dead at his home in Asheville, North Carolina earlier today, and that “no foul play is…
Craig Mack, the Long Island-born rapper who scored the first-ever hit on Bad Boy Records before eventually leaving the music business to find religion, has died. Mack’s former producer Alvin Toney confirmed his death to the New York Daily News, saying that Mack died of heart failure at a hospital near his home in…
Hubert de Givenchy, the French couturier whose simple, elegant creations made him a favorite of famous women like Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and Jacqueline Kennedy—women whose style trickled down to influence fashion in general throughout the 1950s and 1960s—has died, the fashion house that bears…
